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WOMEN'S BASKETBALL: Beavers look to get back on track at home this weekend

BEMIDJI -- BEMIDJI — After suffering its first lost to Minnesota-Crookston last Saturday, the Bemidji State women's basketball team will return home this weekend to host St. Cloud State and Minnesota-Duluth in Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference play.

"We were pleased with a lot of things we did offensively," Bemidji State head coach Mike Curfman said. "We did not shoot our three-pointers as well as we wanted to, but the story of that game was on the defensive end.

"They did a great job of getting to the foul line and made a ton of three-pointers, but we saw a lot of things of film that we worked on this week. Hopefully we can show a vast improvement from last week."

The loss came despite a career day from senior Kate Warmack. She scored a career-high 33 points on 12-of-14 shooting while grabbing 11 rebounds to notch her fourth double-double of the season.

"You go into every game hoping that your shots will fall," Warmack said. "It is always nice to have those big nights, but we did not get the win. Hopefully we can do both this weekend."

"Her individual performance in that game was phenomenal," Curfman added. "To be able to score 33 points at any time is impressive, but to do it on 12-14 shooting is incredible."

As a senior captain and a dominant post presence, both Curfman and Warmack know the importance of her to be effective on the offensive end.

"If she can continue to do that it will only open things up for Morgan (Lee), Tatum (Lee), Hanna (Zerr) and all of the other guards that we have," Curfman said. "If we can get post presence, it really opens things up for us offensively."

"As a senior and a captain, it is our job to get everyone else fired up," Warmack added. "If we are performing, it is kind of a domino effect that will help everyone else."

Warmack will bring her 19.4 points per game and team-best 11.6 rebounds into this weekend's contests.

The Beavers will need a strong performance in the post in order to defeat the undefeated Huskies, who have eight players listed over six feet tall on their roster.

"Both of those teams are really physical teams," Curfman said of the upcoming opponents. "We need to do a good job of being strong with the ball on the offensive end and rebounding the ball on the defensive end."

Warmack said she is ready for the physical play and does not feel she will have to adjust her game at all.

"I love physical play," Warmack said. "With the new rules, though, you have to keep things in check. In the post it should not be too big of a problem, but it is tough sometimes to be physical without fouling."

Today's game with SCSU will begin at 6 p.m., while the Beavers will host the Bulldogs — who defeated no. 22 ranked Michigan Tech earlier this season — at 4 p.m. Saturday.